Revenge (version two)

by The DaddyLongLeggs

The updated version of my story.

This is my first true fanfic, so don't be too cruel. Anyhoo, I
don't own anything in this fantasy world, and probably never will.
Well, aside from a few characters and a certain very large
Starship, of course.

Well, after reading through the first version of my story, I came to a single conclusion. I hated it. So, after a few pots of (insert your favorite caffinated beverage here), and barely surviving my band's rigorous practice scedule (nine-hour days, sheesh), I rewrote day one. It's the same basic story, so don't worry, but I gave the bad guys a little different motive for their plots.




Day One


The day started as usual for everyone down in the black mage
village. Get up, wash, and go about their business, whatever it was.
Nobody really still understood why they did the things they did day in
and day out, but they did them nonetheless. And recently, with their
new Genome friends that Zidane and his group brought from Terra, the mages
had to teach the genomes their way of life, "So they wouldn't be
confused," explained Mister 46. Most had adapted to their new way of
life rather quickly, while others seemed to hold on to the past rather adamantly.
"No matter," Mister 288 told everyone, "They would turn around
soon."
Other than that, everything seemed rather bland in the Black Mage
village. Even little Bobby Corwen seemed bored, and that said a lot
for the excitable little chocobo. And none of the mages and genomes could cheer him up. They tried for hours showing him their new thoughts on life or explaining how to raise chocobos, but nothing worked.
They were on the verge of desperation when, around lunch time, Bobby
Corwen began sqwaking excitedly and running around the pen wildly. At
first, everyone jumped around with glee seeing their pet happy again,
but it was short lived when Bobby Corwen ran under the pen and wouldn't
come out. Again, the mages and genomes tried everything to coax him
out, but nothing worked.
Nobody could explain Bobby Corwen's sudden mood swings, not even Mister 288. Everyone
just stood around Bobby Corwen's pen, waiting for him to come out. That
is, until Mister 135 and another genome, Kelli started shouting for everyone to
come outside and see what they were looking at.
Nobody was prepared for what was outside.
Up in the sky, a meteor was slowly falling toward their village.
It seemed so beautiful and peaceful, not a
dangerous threat to the village. In fact, it reminded the mages of the
meteor spell they could perform together. Unfortunately, Mister 288 and Mikoto
explained to everyone that meteors could be dangerous if they hit the
ground near people, much like the spell, ruining the magical mood
everyone was feeling. But how could something that beautiful be
dangerous?

Unknown to the villagers, however, this was no ordinary meteor. This was the Terran Interstellar Fleet's flagship, Invincible. And it was making an emergency landing on this little planet, whether they liked it or not.
The captain, Trevanis, paced the bridge of the ship nervously, his jet-black
tail twitching behind him. Trevanis wasn't like the other crewmembers, who had various light hair colors, and a single, short stature. He was the only one with black hair, and was the tallest of them all. Nobody could explain why he was different, not the ship's many doctors, or even the finest doctors back home on Terra.
That was one of the reasons he joined the military. To become a part of a faceless, same-in-every-way group. Unfortunately for him, his differences gave him an extraordinary ability to stand out, and everyone knew it. So his commanders put him in areas where he would be by himself and away from everyone else. Sometimes putting him in the most dangerous of circumstances, but he persevered. But in a moment of weakness, he quit the Terran military. But after nearly seven years of solitude, he applied for the new Terran Interstellar Fleet.
It was then he met his wife, Kirgan, on a training cruise. They developed a relationship as fast as the newest stardrives. But it was never meant to be, for, as Trevanis and Kirgan were about to have their first son, he was called off to duty, a three year scouting mission on the Fleet's newest and most powerful vessel, Invincible. Why they would send a ship like that on such a mundane mission like that was beyond him, but he had orders. That was the last he saw of his wife, his home until recently.
But all he knew so far was that, one, Terra was no more, and two, whoever was responsible would pay.
And Trevanis was very well known to keep his promises.
He stalked over to the helmsman's station, and roughly pushed her out
of the way.
"Three hours until touchdown." he said to himself, reading the display, "Far too long." He turned to the now cowering helmsman, "Helm, push the nose down farther about eighteen degrees, I want us on the surface as fast as possible."
"B-But, sir, the hull temperature is almost at maximum tolerance, we can't push the ship down any farther."
"Are you questioning my orders?"
"N-No, sir. I'll get right on it, sir."
"Good."
The helmsman did as she was told, slowly adjusting the controls, pushing the front of the ship down a little farther.
"Course correction complete, estimated time to touchdown, one hour." the helmsman said, "Hull temperature exceeding maximum tolerance."
"Excellent. I'll be in my chambers." Trevanis said, briskly walking off the
bridge.

As Trevanis walked to his chambers, he began reflecting on the events of the last few months. He had just returned to Terra after completion of his mission, scouting the nearest planetary systems for sites of a future colony. But, when they got into Terran space, there was no welcome fleet, or anything for that matter. He had ordered a full scan for Terran ships in the area, but, surprisingly, there were none. Not even a garbage scow.
One crewman suggested that maybe Terra was at war with someone, and the ships were off somewhere else. Unfortunately, it was the best explanation they had. So, he gave the order to search for any Terran ships in all of the nearby star systems. Three weeks later, they found nothing, as if there was no fleet at all. Seeing no other course of action, they finally approached Terra itself, and signaled fleet command. There was no response. Not on any frequency. Not even static. But, just before he was about to order a standard touchdown protocol, they detected strange readings on the other side of the planet. They didn't have to go anywhere before the entire crew saw before their own eyes, Terra, their home, their planet, destroyed. No, it wasn't a planetary explosion, more like a pure wave of destruction that vaporized the surface, leaving nothing alive, and the surface a cracked, molten abomination.
He knew that the people of Terra would never turn weapons on themselves, so it must have been some kind of alien invaders. Fortunately, right before Terra was destroyed, they got some interesting readings on their sensors. His judgement knew that whoever was responsible for Terra's destruction did something to escape, and those readings were the answer. He ordered his engineers to analyze the data. It was weeks before they came up with a "scientific" conclusion, teleportation.
But he knew the science of Terra wasn't advanced enough to allow such things, at least at the time they left. Had they done something that qualified as a temproal event?
He spent days looking over the records of their mission to check for anything that might explain such a thing, but there was nothing. The alien invaders must have used significantly more advanced technology to not only get to Terra, to destroy it, and then leave. Fortunately, Invincible also had the capability to destroy planets as well, he made sure of that. Terra's revenge could be served.
The only problem was, they had no idea where the invaders went to. He again ordered his engineers to look over the records to see if they had the capacity to replicate that teleportation, coordinates and everything, and, two short months later, they finally did.
The engineers warned Trevanis, however, that their teleportation technology
was highly unstable and could only be used at least partially reliably once, in other words, a one way trip. Trevanis didn't care. His home, his family was destroyed, there was nothing to save, anyway so why would they need to return?
When the day came to use the teleport, Trevanis had ordered everyone to say at least one prayer to Terra, in hopes that their new mission would go smoothly. It was probably that prayer that held the ship together the next few minutes.
As the teleport engines were activated, the regular stardrive engines began to suddenly overload with energy. But they were too late to stop the overload before, one, the teleport suddenly activated, and two, the stardrive engines explosively shutting down. By the end of it, Trevanis had a ship with two decks in ruin, and at least fifty of his five hundred person crew dead. And they seemed to be lost in some unkown area of space. Again, it was weeks before the engineers were able to get the engines stabilized enough to get Invincible moving again, but not for long. He knew, just like everyone else, Invincible was dying, and they had only prolonged its suffering.
So, he made a last ditch effort to find a nearby planet to land on, and, just before they gave up hope, and destroyed all that was left of Terra, one little blue planet revealed itself in shining glory. But it was so very far away, and it was doubtful Invincible could last just a few more thousand kilometers. He had to do it, though, and, utilizing every scrap of power the ship had left, Invincible slowly limped toward the little blue planet. Days later, Invincible entered the upper atmosphere. They were going to survive.
Most surprisingly, though, when Invincible was very near the planet, they detected life signs of Terran origin! Everyone was overjoyed to know that some of Terra's children had survived. But, Trevanis ordered caution, either they somehow didn't know about their heritage or they were one of those extremist groups that didn't care anymore, and had somehow found their way here. They may have been the ones who called the invaders! But, seeing as there was no other seemingly hospitible place to land, Trevanis ordered Invincible to set down near the village where they detcted the Terran life signs. And that brought him back to now.

Trevanis slowly walked into his chambers.
"Light on." he ordered, and every single light in the room sparked to life. His chambers were the first to be cleaned after the disaterous teleportation trip, and yet it still was the messiest of any of them. Clothes, books, mission logs, and various other things littered the floors and any shelf and table space. Trevanis walked over to his small bed, and proceeded to lay down on it. It had been too long before he had any good sleep, and an hour would do just fine. Before closing his eyes, however, Trevanis picked up the one and only picture of his wife he had from off the nightstand. The frame had broken some time ago, and the picture itself was showing its age, but he still clutched it to his heart. Everything he ever loved was gone, save this ship and one picture. He only held onto it, and though back to happier times, before he went on this forsaken trip. Oh, how he wished he could still hold onto her, just hear her voice. He bagan to drift off to sleep thinking of her and his son. His son. Not three years old and he was already dead. Such a terrible waste.
Suddenly, Trevanis was shaken out of his sleep, literally, when the ship shuddered violently. He groggily checked the cronometer, they still had more than a half hour to go before they touched down, what was going on? He put the picture of his wife back on the bedstand, and got up.
Trevanis slowly made his way to the bridge, stumbling every time the ship shuddered.
He arrived at the bridge just in time to see and hear every alarm and klaxon the ship had go off, accompanied by the ship's own computer's voice,
"Atmospheric disturbance, please adjust course and speed to avoid further damage."
"What's going on!?" he yelled to no one over the chaos and alarms that filled the bridge.
"I'm sorry, sir!" yelled the science officer at his post, "Sudden atmospheric energy discharge! It pushed us down a few more degrees! We couldn't have predicted this!"
"Hull tempurature is off the scale!" the helmsman screamed, "The hull is beginning to melt!"
"On viewer!" Trevanis yelled.
The entire front wall of the bridge blinked on to show the front of Invincible, glowing a deep scarlet instead of its normal dark blue, and also being being pelted by lightning discharges from the atmosphere.
"Must have been building up as we descended!" yelled the helmsman, frantically trying, and failing, to keep the ship steady, "New estimates show touchdown in," she paused and turned to Trevanis, "less than one minute, sir!"
"All hands, brace for impact!" Trevanis yelled over the intercom, before the ship lurched violently for the last time before flying through the lowest cloud layer, and then into the hard ground. Trevanis merely closed his eyes and thought of his wife.


Trevanis knew that sudden crash landings were painful for everyone. He merely had to look around to see his crew being tossed around the bridge as if they were nothing but rag dolls in some demented child's grasp. Fortunately, Trevanis' long experience had given him the skill needed to stay steady in his command seat no matter how violently his ship was tossed around. Today, however, he regretted that skill. This odd planet's terrain was so uneven, he used all his strength just to stay seated in his chair. It was only his sheer willpower that kept him from letting go, and his bleeding knuckles proved it. He was also feeling very nauseous, like he had been thrown around in the power turbines a few times. But he still held firm, he was the captain, after all, and captains are always
supposed to remain steady, no matter what.
Fortunately, he only had to endure the violent shuddering of his ship for a scant few more moments before Invincible finally ground to a hault.
So sudden was the ship's deceleration, however, that everyone on the bridge, and quite possibly the rest of the ship, was thrown forward a few meters.
"Report on all stations," Trevanis ordered as soon as he composed himself enough to stand up and gain some measure of control over his spinning head.
"Navigation, I'm alive." reported the helmsman from under her console.
"Science station still works," said the science officer, just before his console sparked and dimmed, "Never mind, science station reports null"
The reports went on for a few more minutes before Trevanis went to the shipwide comm button on his chair, and pressed it. Completely into the arm of the chair. "Does nothing work around here anymore?" he muttered, and set to work sweeping away the debris and dust that had fallen on the back and arms of his chair. But, before he could sit down, an engineer from one of the science labs rushed onto the bridge, looking very tired and terrified. To add to that, his face and hands were covered in dirt and ash, giving him the overall look of one of a rookie deep core mineral miner.
"Sir," he barked, instantly standing at attention and saluting Trevanis.
"Yes?" Trevanis asked, annoyed.
"Sir, the engine room reports that our secondary power core has been destroyed by the impact, we need to replace it immediately."
"And what about the primary core?"
"That's the real problem, sir, the primary core has been damaged, but it's repairable."
"So what's the problem?" Gods, the idiocy of these junior officers.
"The core is leaking fuel, me must evacuate and let the atmospheric cleaners dispose of it before it diffuses throughout the ship, sir."
"Fine. Go send out a security detail to scout our immediate area, I'll order the evac when they're finished."
"Yes, sir." With that, the young engineer practically ran off the bridge to assemble whatever security forces he could find. Trevanis only sat down, hopefully to get at least a few seconds of solace. He didn't even get to finish closing his eyes before a crewman began adressing him.
"Sir?"
"Yes!?" Trevanis had never been this annoyed.
"I was just wondering if you wanted to have those looked at?" The crewman pointed to Trevanis' bleeding knuckles.
"Oh, yes. Send a doctor up here. Looks like he'll be needed elswhere, too," Trevanis muttered, looking around what was left of the bridge, and some of the crew struggling to get their posts working, while others struggled just to stay alive.
"I'll send him up immediately," the crewman said, walking off the bridge.
This time, Trevanis didn't close his eyes, just waited for the next problem to arise.
"Sir," Right on schedule, he thought, this time it was the helmsman, "By some miracle, my console survived, if we get the engines working, I can fly us out of here."
Finally, some good news! "But," she continued "I don't know if I can fly us out of the atmosphere."
Figures.


Back at the Black Mage village, everyone saw the entire ordeal. All the way from the meteor suddenly getting really, really bright, to all of the lightning, and finally it smashing into the ground, and begin sliding across the forest, really fast, creating a huge hole and a lot of forest fires.
Some mages decided to over to the strange meteor and inspect it, only to have them running back to the village with their hats on fire. Apparently, the meteor, or, whatever it was, was still extremely hot.
So, everyone waited, and waited some more for the meteor do cool down before they could approach it. They were so intent on watching this strangely shaped meteor that they didn't notice five figures exiting out of a hatch near the ground, weapons drawn.


The five man security force that young engineer assembled piled out of an escape hatch on the left side of the Invincible. Each clad in an enviro-suit to not only protect them from potentially deadly atmosphere, but also from the immense eat the hull was still emanating. Which gave them the appearance of some otherworldly alien soldiers, which, by a strange coincidence, they were.
The captain of the squad, who only went by the nickname of "Niner", checked the readings on his hand-held scanning device, before giving the order for the squad to move away from the ship and remove their helmets. Once they were safely away, the squad did a customary recon patrol around the ship, keeping silent throughout most of it.
Soon, they began an area recon.
About three kilometers away from the ship, Niner held up his hand to stop the squad.
"What is it, cheif?" "Pudge" asked, named for his habit of eating one too many desserts during chow time.
"I'm detecting something unusual up ahead,."
"Hate to burst your bubble, captain, but this whole damn planet is unusual."
"I mean, this thing is detecting life readings that don't conform to any of the ones previously recorded."
"Could we stop for a minute?" The ever-ignorant "Twitch" asked, named for, no matter how hard he concentrated, his head and tail suddenly twitched every so often.
"We already have, twit," replied Pudge.
"That's Twitch!"
"Whatever."
"Shut up, you two." Niner practically shouted, "Whatever it is, it's really close. Ready your weapons."
The recon squad each powered up their guns, filling the area with the guns distinctive powering-up "buzz" sound.
"Five meters...two...it's here."
The creature that emerged was something out of their worst nightmares. It was relatively diminutive, had an eyestalk protruding from its head, and was being followed by a pair of floating symbols, an O and a cross. A demon straight from the bowels of hell.
And in the most horrifyingly cheery voice in the universe, it spoke,
"Pop quiz!"
"Fire!" Niner instinctively yelled, pulling his own gun and firing at the creature, filling it with holes and energy burns. The rest of the group followed suit, and soon, there was nothing but a pile of red, smoldering meat on the forest floor.
"Good job, men." Niner said while gently kicking the pile of remains, checking for any signs of life.
"What do we do with those other things?" "Tanner" asked.
"Take 'em. We have no need for them, anyway."
The four other soldiers quickly ran over to the floating symbols, and caught them without resistance.
"Let's rest here," Niner ordered, "We'll head to the village at sunrise."








Note: It took me longer than I expected to write that last part about killing that "Demonic forest creature" (ten points to whoever guesses what it is). Could this be foreshadowing as to how the survivors of Terra are going to treat the rest of Gaia? Perhaps...